Life in a cooperative differs significantly from other options open to students in Lane County. "Free to be you and me" has been used to describe our co-op. While living in the co-op, students are free from the rigid schedules (and rigid food) of the dorms. We are free from dealing with landlords, because we are our own landlords. Members/owners are answerable to no one but their co-owners, the other members.

With no one responsible for how we live but ourselves, we must accept, with our freedoms, the responsibilities that follow. Because there is no cafeteria staff preparing food for us we must plan, order and cook our own food. Because there is no absentee landlord, we must take on the responsibility of maintaining our houses. Long, long ago, a co-oper in a distant land put it well when she reported:

The person who expects to escape from rules and responsibilities by moving into a co-op is disillusioned. For in the co-op each individual finds he is expected to not only look after themselves, but to consider the rights of fellow members.... We have responsibilities to other members and privileges which are in themselves responsibilities.